Citizens United leader calls on Conservative Party in Albany to fight for gun rights

ALBANY -- The leader of Citizens United, the Washington, D.C.-based group behind the landmark Supreme Court decision on independent campaign spending, sharply criticized Gov. Andrew Cuomo's gun law in a speech Monday at the Holiday Inn.

"As you've seen here in New York state, the fight to preserve and protect the Second Amendment is on its heels," David Bossie said Monday while speaking at the Conservative Party's political action conference. "Your governor is a very aggressive governor on the Second Amendment."

Bossie, a father of four, said he is sorrowful over the Newtown, Conn., school massacre, but "that tragedy does not give license to trample on our right to keep and bear arms."

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"You can't legislate away evil, and that's what the left wants to do ... These guys are very smart and they're very shrewd, and they are going to use this unspeakable tragedy to their political benefit and they are going to try to strike while the iron's hot," Bossie said.

He said the framers of the Constitution were clearly guaranteeing gun rights as a check on tyrannical leaders with the Second Amendment.

"They felt the absolute need to give people the means by which to defend themselves from their own government by bearing arms. They had experience in these matters," Bossie said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's work in quickly shepherding the gun control bill into law earlier this month was geared toward a possible presidential campaign, he said. Cuomo has largely been speculated to be a possible 2016 Democratic presidential candidate.

"Everything he is doing is based upon the potential to run in 2016," Bossie said. "But (Cuomo's) young enough that he could wait. It's always nice to be talked about in the conversation about running for president ... and it puts him in line for 2020, which is just around the corner."

Bossie called on Conservatives to rally behind the fight over the Second Amendment.

Bossie has headed Citizens United since 2000. Before that, he came to prominence in Washington as the chief House investigator of Bill and Hillary Clinton in the Whitewater scandal. He spoke at the Conservative Party's annual Albany lobbying weekend, getting a warm reception from the audience of party leaders.